A COMBINED operation of police forces around Europe have shut down a Dark Web weapons business run out of Spain.Using dark Web ALPHABAY MARKET, a young man from Pamplona sent dozens of guns all around Europe and even the US.Police raided his house and found huge arsenal.The weapons came from Slovakia, the same place that supplied weapons in the 2015 Paris attacks.Some weapons were sent to the UK where they were seized as well as Germany where a man shot himself the same day he got the guns.btyThe unnamed 24-year-old Spanish man, who has been arrested, had an enviable life, including buying a yacht he kept in a marina in Barcelona.The raid, as part of operation RUGER, has been described as one of the biggest international blows at the international level to the illegal business on the Dark Web.The investigation, which began in March, has been described as ‘meticulous’ and invovled Germany, UK, US and Europol.Five buyers of the young man have also been arrested.Dark Web users use Tor software that installs into your browser and sets up the specific connections you need to access dark Web sites.Tor is an encrypted technology that helps people maintain anonymity online.It does this in part by routing connections through servers around the world, making them much harder to track.It allows for the sale of drugs, weapons and even murder online as the buyers remain anonymous.

Israel Is Going to War in Syria to Fight IranSo finally after all this ISIS , Daesch, Al Nusr, Al~Bagdadi crap we are coming down to core values? Israel has problems with Iranian forces in the Syrian neighborhood, even after 500,000 Syrians are dead?September 28, 2017 Israel Is Going to War in Syria to Fight

Israel Is Going to War in Syria to Fight Iran Israeli officials aren’t shying from confronting Tehran’s forces — since no one else will.JERUSALEM – Israeli officials believe that Iran is winning its bid for dominance in the Middle East, and they are mobilizing to counter the regional realignment that threatens to follow. The focus of Israel’s military and diplomatic campaign is Syria. Israeli jets have struck Hezbollah and Syrian regime facilities and convoys dozens of times during Syria’s civil war, with the goal of preventing the transfer of weapons systems from Iran to Hezbollah. In an apparent broadening of the scope of this air campaign, on Sept. 7 Israeli jets struck a Syrian weapons facility near Masyaf responsible for the production of chemical weapons and the storing of surface-to-surface missiles.Israeli paranoia and persecution complexThe strike came after a round of diplomacy in which Israeli officials concluded that their concerns regarding the developing situation in Syria were not being addressed with sufficient seriousness in either the United States or Russia. A senior delegation led by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen visited Washington in late August, reportedly to express Israel’s dissatisfaction with the emerging U.S.-Russian understanding on Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi to raise similar concerns with Moscow.In both cases, the Israelis were disappointed with the response. Their overriding concern in Syria is the free reign that all the major players there seem willing to afford Iran and its various proxies in the country. And as long as nobody else addresses that concern in satisfactory manner, Israel is determined to continue addressing it on its own.Iranian forces now maintain a presence close to or adjoining the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights and the Quneitra Crossing that separates it from the Syrian-controlled portion of the territory. Israel has throughout the Syrian war noted a desire on the part of the Iranians and their Hezbollah clients to establish this area as a second line of active confrontation against the Jewish state, in addition to south Lebanon.“Syria,” of course, hardly exists today. The regime is in the hands of its Iranian and Russian masters, and half of the country remains outside its control. But the Iran-led bloc and its clearly stated intention to eventually destroy Israel certainly do exist, and the de facto buffer against them may be disappearing. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah recently declared “victory” in the Syrian war, adding that what remained was “scattered battles.”With the prospect of pro-Iranian forces reaching Bukamal on the Syrian-Iraqi border, this opens up the possibility of the much-reported Iranian “land corridor” stretching uninterrupted from Iran itself to a few kilometers from the Israeli-controlled Golan. Earlier this month, Israel shot down an Iranian drone over the Golan Heights. It was the latest evidence of Iran’s activities on the border. Syrian opposition reports have noted an Iranian presence in Tal Al-Sha’ar area, Tal Al-Ahmar, and Division 90 headquarters, all in the vicinity of the border.Pro-Iran forces, meanwhile, are open in their ambitions. Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi Shiite force supported by Iran, has formed a “Golan Liberation” unit and declared itself “ready to take action to liberate the Golan.” Senior figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij have been photographed in areas close to the border.Israel has so far thwarted these ambitions in two ways. First, it has launched attacks to frustrate and interdict attempts to build a paramilitary infrastructure in the area. Most famously, the killing of Jihad Mughniyeh, son of Hezbollah military chief Imad Mughniyeh, in a targeted strike at Mazraat Amal in the Quneitra area in January 2015 was part of this effort. Five other Hezbollah members and a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Allahdadi, were also killed in the strike.Second, Israel has developed pragmatic working relations with the local rebel groups who at the moment still control the greater part of the border, such as the Fursan al-Joulan group. This cooperation focuses on treating wounded fighters and civilians, and providing humanitarian aid and financial assistance. There has also probably been assistance in the field of intelligence, though no evidence has yet emerged of direct provision of weapons or direct engagement of Israeli forces on the rebels’ behalf.On July 9, a ceasefire agreement directly brokered by the United States and Russia for southwest Syria was announced. It posits the establishment of a de-escalati

The Mossad’s role in the Kurdish Independence movement CONTACT@IFAMERICANSKNEW.ORG SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 ELIEZER TSAFRIR, KURDSMossad station chief Eliezer Tsafrir (far right) with Kurdish fighters in about 1975. In 1965 Ben Gurion directed the Mossad to train and supply Kurdish separatist guerillas. (Tsafrir was also active in Iran.)Israeli strategists have long wished to balkanize the Middle East to make it easier for Israel to dominate the region. These efforts to break up the surrounding nations into smaller units were described by Moshe Sharett in the 1950s, by Yinon Oded in the 1980s, and more recently by the neocons in the Clean Break document. (See this article for more details.)Since dismembering Iraq has long been desired, it is no surprise to learn of Israel’s role in assisting the Kurdish independence movement.Michael Goldfarb reports on this in the The Forward; below are excerpts:We have no friends but the mountains,” is an old Kurdish saying.No friends but the mountains — and Israel — is the reality. There is a deep affinity between Israel and the Kurds. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was alone among world leaders when he endorsed Kurds preparing to vote in an independence referendum.But it was a rare public declaration of this secret closeness. Israeli-Kurdish friendship is the geopolitical love that dares not speak its name, for the Kurds would prefer it be kept quiet. Open alliance with the Jewish State remains a taboo for most countries in the Middle East. It makes it all the more ironic that Kurdistan is commonly referred to as “Yehudistan”.….. Israel has long held a slightly different view of the Kurdish struggle for independence. In some ways, Israel’s view is pragmatic. The Middle East could do with another secular democracy.….. Eliezer Gheizi Safrir [usually spelled Tsafrir], Mossad’s station chief in Kurdistan in the mid-1970’s [said]:“They called me Kak Gheizi,” he said proudly. Kak or kaka means brother. It is a term of friendship. “These are good people,” says Gheizi. “They share the same values as Jews.”But the relationship between the Kurds and Jews has a historical aspect, too. Gheizi was there at the beginning, in the mid-60’s, when Mullah Mustafa Barzani, the first leader of the modern Kurdish independence movement, flew to Israel to ask David Ben Gurion for support.“They asked us for three machine guns and one broadcasting station,” Gheizi laughs. “That was the beginning.”Ben-Gurion knew the relationship had to be secret. The regional sensitivities were too great; Israel’s Arab neighbors would have seen overt help to Kurds trying to break away from an Arab country as an act of aggression.For these reasons, Ben Gurion assigned the Mossad to handle it.Next came training of the Kurdish guerillas, the peshmerga. “We gave them a whole line of training, from small group commander to battalion commander,” Gheizi explained. “We supplied them with field cannons thanks to the generosity of Arab Armies who left us this equipment in the wars.”Israeli soldier Tzuri Sagi, right, was sent on a secret mission to aid Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani in 1966.But the main thing Mullah Mustafa wanted from Ben Gurion was an introduction. According to Gheizi, Barzani would tell Ben-Gurion, “Amrika, please bring Amrika to help us more.” When Barzani heard Henry Kissinger was in Israel, he called Gheizi and said, “Tell Yitzhak [Rabin] to bring him by the ear to meet us here.” But Israel was unable to deliver America.But the history goes back much further than Ben Gurion. Jews lived in Kurdistan from the time of the destruction of the First Temple. Not all those dispersed during that catastrophe were taken to Babylon, and some ended up due north a few hundred miles in the Kurdish mountains. They remained there until the early 1950’s, when they were airlifted to Israel as post-colonial Iraq took on a determined anti-Semitic color. [This “anti-Semitic color” was helped when the Mossad bombed synagogues and made it look like this was done by Iraqi Muslims.]….. Kurdish independence won’t happen soon, and relations with Israel will continue to be opaque. Mullah Mustafa’s son, Massoud Barzani, runs the Kurdistan Regional Government. Open acknowledgement of friendship with Israel will not help him.Nor did it help when, two weeks ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his displeasure with the referendum and Netanyahu’s endorsement of it. This week, Bibi changed tactics and issued a cease and desist order to his cabinet, saying no one was to discuss the result publicly.The love that dare not speak its name, the love that everyone in the region knows about, will continue to be pledged behind closed doors.SHARE THIS:

Israel Admits To Forcibly Injecting Black Immigrants With Birth ControlByaprilPublished on February 13, 2015SHARE TWEET 7 COMMENTSApril V. Taylor Israel has admitted that it forcibly and without consent gave birth control injections to Ethiopian Jewish immigrants, according to a report in Haaretz. An investigative journalist uncovered the fact that most of the women who were given the birth control shots were not aware they were being given birth control and did not consent. Since that discovery, Health Ministry Director General Prof Ron Gamzu has acknowledged in a letter to Israeli health maintenance organizations that Black Jewish immigrants were given the shots.Gamzu issued the letter after Sharona Eliahu-Chai of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel lodged a complaint on behalf of multiple women’s rights and Ethiopian immigrant groups. The letter specifically instructed gynecologists in the HMOs “not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment.”Investigative journalist Gal Gabbay interviewed 35 Ethiopian immigrants along with Sava Reuben. Some of them reported that while they were still in transit camps waiting to complete the immigration process, they were intimidated and threatened into taking the Depo-Provera birth control shot. One woman stated, “They told us they are inoculations. They told us people who frequently give birth suffer. We took it every three months. We said we didn’t want to.” Another woman reported that she believed she had been given a flu vaccination. Shockingly, 25 of the 35 women interviewed were still receiving birth control shots at the time they were interviewed.One woman, who declined to give her name, says that the only reason she complied with receiving the birth control injections was because she was threatened with her immigration to Israel being blocked. These women represent a handful of the women affected by this unethical act. In just the last decade, more than 50,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel, with almost 100,000 immigrating since the 1980s.According to a New York Times report, Israel has historically made birth rates and demographics a political issue as the country focuses on trying to promote Jewish birthrates in order to retain a Jewish majority. It is estimated that Israel’s deceptive use of the birth control shots could be a significant factor in why the birthrate of Israel’s Ethiopian community has dropped by some 50 percent. Sava and Reuben produced a documentary regarding this drop, instigating a popular outcry.READ Mother Of Daughter Killed By Army Father Pushes For ‘Talia’s Law’Six years prior to the discovery of the forcible use of the birth control, Women and Technologies Project head Hedva Eyal questioned the Israeli government abut why Ethiopian immigrants were disproportionately receiving 60 percent of birth control shots in the country, but she was not given an answer. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Eyal states, “The ease with which a woman’s testimony is dismissed – certainly that of a Black woman and a poor Black woman at that – is shocking.”Israel’s health ministry has vehemently denied the forcible use of the birth control shots. A spokesperson for the department states, “The Israel ministry of health neither advises nor encourages the use of Depo-Provera injections and if they are being administered this is in despite of our view.”Dr. Mushira Aboodia, a gynecologist with Jerusalem’s Hadassah medical center, states, “This is a policy that no one will admit. No one in Israel will take responsibility for the treatment in the camps but someone must have instigated it and it would not be in Ethiopia’s interests to treat women preparing to leave the country. Something is definitely wrong here.” It is disturbingly ironic that Israel has engaged in something eerily similar to the dark eugenics experiments carried out during World War II against Jews.This is not the first time the birth control shot Depo-Provera has been embroiled in controversy. In the United States, between 1967 and 1978, 13,000 impoverished women in Georgia were part of an experiment where they were given the birth control injections with many of them not being aware that they were part of an experiment. Half of the women in the study were Black.

Israel Admits To Forcibly Injecting Black Immigrants With Birth ControlByaprilPublished on February 13, 2015SHARE TWEET 7 COMMENTSApril V. Taylor Israel has admitted that it forcibly and without consent gave birth control injections to Ethiopian Jewish immigrants, according to a report in Haaretz. An investigative journalist uncovered the fact that most of the women who were given the birth control shots were not aware they were being given birth control and did not consent. Since that discovery, Health Ministry Director General Prof Ron Gamzu has acknowledged in a letter to Israeli health maintenance organizations that Black Jewish immigrants were given the shots.Gamzu issued the letter after Sharona Eliahu-Chai of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel lodged a complaint on behalf of multiple women’s rights and Ethiopian immigrant groups. The letter specifically instructed gynecologists in the HMOs “not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment.”Investigative journalist Gal Gabbay interviewed 35 Ethiopian immigrants along with Sava Reuben. Some of them reported that while they were still in transit camps waiting to complete the immigration process, they were intimidated and threatened into taking the Depo-Provera birth control shot. One woman stated, “They told us they are inoculations. They told us people who frequently give birth suffer. We took it every three months. We said we didn’t want to.” Another woman reported that she believed she had been given a flu vaccination. Shockingly, 25 of the 35 women interviewed were still receiving birth control shots at the time they were interviewed.One woman, who declined to give her name, says that the only reason she complied with receiving the birth control injections was because she was threatened with her immigration to Israel being blocked. These women represent a handful of the women affected by this unethical act. In just the last decade, more than 50,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel, with almost 100,000 immigrating since the 1980s.According to a New York Times report, Israel has historically made birth rates and demographics a political issue as the country focuses on trying to promote Jewish birthrates in order to retain a Jewish majority. It is estimated that Israel’s deceptive use of the birth control shots could be a significant factor in why the birthrate of Israel’s Ethiopian community has dropped by some 50 percent. Sava and Reuben produced a documentary regarding this drop, instigating a popular outcry.READ Mother Of Daughter Killed By Army Father Pushes For ‘Talia’s Law’Six years prior to the discovery of the forcible use of the birth control, Women and Technologies Project head Hedva Eyal questioned the Israeli government abut why Ethiopian immigrants were disproportionately receiving 60 percent of birth control shots in the country, but she was not given an answer. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Eyal states, “The ease with which a woman’s testimony is dismissed – certainly that of a Black woman and a poor Black woman at that – is shocking.”Israel’s health ministry has vehemently denied the forcible use of the birth control shots. A spokesperson for the department states, “The Israel ministry of health neither advises nor encourages the use of Depo-Provera injections and if they are being administered this is in spite of our view.”Dr. Mushira Aboodia, a gynecologist with Jerusalem’s Hadassah medical center, states, “This is a policy that no one will admit. No one in Israel will take responsibility for the treatment in the camps but someone must have instigated it and it would not be in Ethiopia’s interests to treat women preparing to leave the country. Something is definitely wrong here.” It is disturbingly ironic that Israel has engaged in something eerily similar to the dark eugenics experiments carried out during World War II against Jews.This is not the first time the birth control shot Depo-Provera has been embroiled in controversy. In the United States, between 1967 and 1978, 13,000 impoverished women in Georgia were part of an experiment where they were given the birth control injections with many of them not being aware that they were part of an experiment. Half of the women in the study were Black

Next time someone says you are Anti Semite. Just why you are not Black!!!! The Israelite Hebrew was black.Modern Jews are from Ashkenazi which stems from the Khazarian tribe and some genres from a Semitic tribe who was Arab speaking. You see you all are Arab brother. so why are hasting another Arab Brother or Sister !!!

They are very racists in Israel. The government offers blacks $3500 to leave the country. That is why they hated Obama. And being against the Zionists is not anti-Semitism, it is anti-Zionist. Zionism is a political movement, not a religion, there are Christian Zionists. Many Jews are against what is happening

VANCOUVER, Canada – Roger Waters is no stranger to controversy. The founding member of Pink Floyd is an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights and the BDS movement, but his current Us + Them tour has been met by opposition from pro-Israel groups and a new documentary targeting his views on Israel.

A series of film screenings of Wish You Weren’t Here, a documentary by Ian Halperin that accuses Waters of anti-Semitism, is scheduled in cities across Canada in October. The screenings, sponsored by Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada, are timed to coincide with Waters’ own tour across the country.

Karen Rodman from the Canadian BDS committee while in Palestine (Photo courtesy of Karen Rodman)

Karen Rodman, an organiser with the Canadian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) committee, which calls for an international boycott of Israel over the way it treats Palestinians and violates international laws, said that the film’s tour is part of a wider “smear campaign” to discredit Waters and the movement. The BDS committee includes groups like Independent Jewish Voices and the Canada Palestine Support Network.

A Waters concert last week in Long Island went on in spite of attempts to shut it down byNassau County officials who cited a local ani-BDS bill, which passed in May 2016.

The concert Waters held in Miami was marred by a full-page ad in the Miami Herald paid for by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation (GMJF) with the headline: “Anti-Semitism and Hatred Are Not Welcome in Miami.”

In what Canada Palestine Association chair Hanna Kawas calls part of a “co-ordinated” international campaign to discredit Waters and the BDS movement, the GMJF wrote:

“Your vile messages of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and hatred are not welcome in our community,” adding, “Mr Waters, stop openly calling for support of a cultural boycott of Israel.”

The leadership that Roger Waters has shown globally in standing up for Palestinian rights is admirable

– Karen Rodman, the Canadian BDS committee

Encouraged by the same organisation, The City of Miami Beach prevented a group of children from a summer camp drama programme from singing on stage with Waters. He responded in an oped published earlier this month in the New York Times, headlined “Congress Shouldn’t Silence Human Rights Advocates.”

“I understand that city officials have a democratic right to disagree with my opinions, but I was shocked that they were willing to take it out on kids,” Rogers wrote.

The show goes on

Still, Waters tour goes on and he continues to campaign for Palestinian rights.

Roger Waters spraypaints graffiti against Israel’s separation barrier surrounding the West Bank town of Bethlehem before his concert in Rotterdam, 7 July 2006 (AFP)

He opposed a draft bill in the US Senate aimed at silencing BDS supporters, called the Israeli Anti-Boycott Act, which would impose penalties on US citizens “engaged in interstate or foreign commerce” who support the boycott of Israeli products and services, including up to 20 years in prison and a $1m fine.

Waters wrote in the New York Times: “By endorsing this McCarthyite bill, senators would take away Americans’ First Amendment rights in order to protect Israel from nonviolent pressure to end its 50-year-old occupation of Palestinian territory and other abuses of Palestinian rights.”

The bill has also attracted much criticism from free-speech advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union. Rodman points out that while motions have been passed federally, provincially and even municipally that condemn BDS in Canada, they are not binding like some American legislation that criminalises support for BDS.

Still this has not stopped groups like B’nai Brith Canada from targeting Waters. The group’s CEO Michael Mostyn said in a statement explaining the campaign:

“When you’re only targeting Israel for delegitimisation and demonisation and with a double standard, that‘s anti-Semitism, and that’s what Roger Waters is guilty of.

“By promoting this film, B’nai Brith hopes to raise awareness of his extremely misguided and dangerous views, and highlight the truth surrounding Waters’ activism: that it’s biased, unfactual, and lends credence to the movement that seeks Israel’s destruction.”

Whether or not he views himself as an anti-Semite, Roger Waters is using his platform as a musician to promote a completely false and anti-Semitic narrative

– Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada

He further stated: “Whether or not he views himself as an anti-Semite, Roger Waters is using his platform as a musician to promote a completely false and anti-Semitic narrative. This narrative ignores history, genealogy, archaeology, and anthropology, and leads to real-world consequences for members of the Jewish community who get targeted by fanatics caught up in its hateful ideology.”

Rather than “playing into B’nai Brith Canada’s bid for publicity,” said Rodman, Canadian activists will be staging not counter protests but “welcoming events” for Waters as he makes his way across the country. Rodman and her fellow activists plan to stand outside venues with signage and information tables about Palestinian issues and BDS.

Roger Waters addresses the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People as a representative of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine on 29 November 2012 at UN headquarters in New York (AFP)

“The leadership that Roger Waters has shown globally in standing up for Palestinian rights is admirable,” Rodman said. “We’d love to see Canadian artists follow in his footsteps.”

To that end the group is “delighted” that Waters has signed a petition to stop Canadian rock star Bryan Adams from playing in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this December.

“I think Roger Waters is being unfairly targeted, as are many people who stand up for Palestinian rights. They risk being slandered and tactics of fear are used to silence them,” Rodman said.

Hanna Kawas (front) at an Idle No More solidarity rally in Vancouver in 2013 with two other activists (MEE/Hadani Ditmars)

But the B’nai Brith tour of Wish You Weren’t Here may in fact backfire says Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) activist Sid Sinaid, who has already bought his ticket for Waters’ Vancouver date, and notes that the tour, which has included stops in Europe and America, is quite popular. Waters even had to schedule several extra concerts on his tour because of the huge demand.

“I’ve sent word to Waters via Facebook, asking if there’s anything IJV and others in the Palestine solidarity movement can do to express our support for the tour, but haven’t heard anything back,” he said.

Waters visited Israel in 2006 to play a gig during his Dark Side of the Moon tour, where he toured the occupied West Bank and moved his concert from HaYarkon park in Tel Aviv to Wahat al-Salam – Neveh Shalom, a village in between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, called the “Oasis of Peace” in English. After this visit, his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict changed.

In an article published in February 2016, Rogers told the Independent that the Palestinian civilisation, “is an ancient, brilliant, artistic and very humane civilisation that is being destroyed in front of our eyes”.

In a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published in June 2017, HRW stated: “Fifty years after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it controls these areas through repression, institutionalised discrimination, and systematic abuses of the Palestinian population’s rights.” HRW added that the Israeli occupation was involved in “unlawful killings; forced displacement; abusive detention”.

Trial by film

In an interview with MEE, film-maker Ian Halperin, whose last documentary Brokenwas about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s relationship, said he was not bothered by potential “welcoming events” by activists for Waters.

Ian Halperin does not see a parallel between calls for sanctions against South Africa from black activists and the BDS movement (Photo courtesy of Ian Halperin)

“I am very pro-first amendment,” said the film-maker, who has secured screening dates in Chicago, New York and Miami in November, hosted by Jewish and Christian evangelical groups.

“My film is not an echo chamber of Jews complaining about anti-Semitism. Some Arabs and Muslims are interviewed as well as South African former anti-apartheid leaders,” he said.

Although Halperin said he cannot reveal too much information about the film until its premiere, he relates that interviews include ones with the Pope, Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair, a member of the Quilliam Foundation, named after the man who opened England’s first mosque, as well as with Palestinian citizens of Israel interviewed in Tel Aviv.

I think Roger Waters is being unfairly targeted, as are many people who stand up for Palestinian rights. They risk being slandered and tactics of fear are used to silence them

– Karen Rodman, the Canadian BDS committee

Halperin said his film is about Waters within the larger context of global anti-Semitism. “Racism is racism,” he said, noting that Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are both related issues.

But he cites Canada’s inter-faith and multicultural nature, and solidarity after the massacre at the Quebec City mosque as being distinct from the US.

But why focus on Roger Waters?

“As a son of Polish Holocaust survivors, I am deeply offended by Waters equating Israel with Nazi Germany,” he said. The premise of the film, he explained, is to disprove this notion by interviewing global experts on racism and anti-Semitism.

Halperin, who is also a musician, said that he played with many black South Africans from townships and was an anti-apartheid activist in the 80s. But, unlike South Africa’s archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, he does not see a parallel between calls for sanctions against South Africa from black activists and the BDS movement.

“They are apples and oranges,” he said, noting that “Israeli Arabs” can “sit in parliament” and have “equal rights”. Halperin has never been to the occupied West Bank or Gaza, but travelled to Israel to interview “Jews and Arabs” for the film.

As a son of Polish Holocaust survivors, I am deeply offended by Waters equating Israel with Nazi Germany

– Ian Halperin, film-maker

“Everyone I talked to wanted peace,” he said. “It’s just the leaders that foment the conflict.”

The cultural boycott against Israel, he said, unfairly targets artists and intellectuals, many of whom are pro-Palestinian.

According to Halperin, Roger Waters declined interview requests and is not part of Wish You Weren’t Here.

For her part, Rodman, who like Halperin has had no direct contact with the rock star, said: “We commend Roger Waters for his stance and convictions on human rights. The Palestinian civil society call for BDS is based on international humanitarian law, and calls for the same rights for Palestinians afforded to all people.”

She noted that “Roger Waters’ music and words speak for themselves. To criticise any state is not a violation of human rights. However, to violate the principles of freedom, equity and justice for people is a violation of human rights. In speaking for these principles, Roger Waters is condemned by the Zionist project as are many people who defend justice for Palestinians.”